Ben Bernanke(美联储主席)本伯南克

Ben Bernanke（美联储主席）本*伯南克
A bal d秃顶的man with a gr ay苍白的bear d胡须and tir ed疲倦的eyes i s sitting i n hi s over si ze 太大的超大型的W ashington office, talking about the economy. He doesn't hav e a command ing居高临下的威风凛凛的pr esence. He i sn't a mesmeri zing 以魅力迫使人的speaker. He has none of the l ook-at-me swagger大摇大摆的吹牛的or li sten-to-me chari sma神授的能力非凡的领导能力so common among men with over si ze W ashington offices. Hi s arguments参数ar en't parti san偏袒的or i deol ogical意识形态的; they're methodical有方法的有系统的, （gr ounded i n）通晓data and the latest academic literature. When he doesn't know something, he doesn't bluster怒号or bluff吓唬. He's pr ofessorial, which makes sense, because he spent most of hi s car eer as a pr ofessor.
He i s not, in other w or ds, a typical Beltway环城快道（pow er br oker）权利掮客. He's shy. He doesn't do the D.C.直流di nner-party circui t电路; he prefer s to eat at home with hi s wife, who still mak es hi m do the di shes and take out the trash垃圾废物. Then they do cr ossw or ds 填字游戏or read. Because Ben Bernank e i s a ner d讨厌的人呆子. (See p ictures of Ben Bernan ke's life from childh ood to chairmanship.)
He just happens to be the most pow erful ner d on the planet.
Ber nank e i s the 56-year-ol d chair man of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the U.S., the most i mportant and l east under stood force shapi ng the American — and gl obal— economy. Those green bills featuring dead Presi dents are l abeled "Federal Reserve N ote" for a reason: the Fed contr ol s the money supply. It i s an independent gover nment agency that cond ucts （monetary policy）货币政策, which means it sets short-ter m i nterest r ates —w hich means it has i mmense巨大的广大的i nfluence over inflati on, unempl oy ment, the strength of the dollar and the strength of your w allet. And ever si nce global cr ed it mark ets began i mpl od i ng爆聚的, its
（mil d-manner ed）温良恭谨的chair man has dr amatically引人注目地ex panded those pow er s and r einvented彻底改造the Fed.
Pr ofessor Bernank e of Princeton w as a lead ing schol ar of the Gr eat Depressi on. He k new how the passive被动的消极的Fed of the 1930s helped create the cal amity不幸事件— thr ough its stubborn顽固的难处理的r efusal拒绝to expand the money supply and its tr agic悲剧性的l ack of i magi nation and ex peri mentati on实验. Chair man Bernanke of W ashington w as deter mined not to be the Fed chair man who（pr esi d ed over）主持Depr essi on 2.0. So w hen turbulence骚乱动荡i n U.S. housing mark ets metastasi zed转移迁徙into the w or st gl obal financial cri sis i n mor e than 75 year s, he （conjur ed up）用魔法召唤trillions 万亿of new doll ar s and blasted枯萎的them into the economy; engi neered massive public rescues of failing private compani es; （r atcheted dow n）变低i nter est r ates to zer o; l ent to （mutual funds）共同基金, hedge funds, forei gn bank s, i nvestment bank s, manufacturer s, i nsur er s保险公司and other borr ower s w ho had never d r eamed of r eceiving Fed cash; (jump-started)起动发动stalled失速的cr ed it mark ets i n ev erything fr om car l oans to corpor ate paper; r ev oluti oni zed彻底改革的housi ng financ e with a breathtaki ng （shopping spree）抢购狂欢疯狂购物for mortgage bonds抵押债券;（bl ew up）爆发使充气放大the Fed's（balance sheet）资产负债单to three ti mes its pr evious si ze; and gener ally tr ansfor med改变the stai d固定的沉着的ar ena 竞技场舞台of central banking into a stage for desperate令人绝望的
i mpr ovi sati on即兴创作. He di dn't just reshape改造再形成U.S. monetary policy; he led an effort to save the w orl d economy. (See pictures of the Federal Reserve Ban k's history.)
N o w onder hi s eyes l ook tir ed.
The last Fed chair, Alan Gr eenspan, inspired鼓舞激发an odd 古怪的（cul t of per sonality）个人崇拜. Ber nank e hoped to r eturn the Fed to dull迟钝的obscurity身份低微的. But hi s aggressive steps to avert避免doomsday世界末日— and hi s unusually cl ose partnerships with Bush and Obama Tr easury Secretaries Henry Paul son and Ti mothy Geithner—have exposed hi m and hi s instituti on to criticism 批评苛求考证fr om all d irections. He's Bailout紧急救助Ben, the （patr on saint）守护神of W all Street greedheads, or K i ng Ben, the unel ected czar沙皇独裁者of a fourth br anch分支树枝of government. He's soft柔软的笨的on i nflation, bombar d ing炮击射击曝光the country with easy money, or soft on unemploy ment, i gnoring Mai n Street's （cries for）迫切需求渴求吵着要ev en more aggr essive acti on. Bleed ing-heart liberal s自由主义者and tea-party r eacti onaries反动派alik e are trying to bl ock hi s appointment for a second four-y ear ter m学期术语条款. Li bertarian 自由主义的Congr essman国会议员Ron Paul i s pedd ling叫卖的a best seller titled End the Fed. And Congr ess i s consi d ering bills that coul d strip剥去剥夺the Fed of some of its power and independ ence. (Watch the video "Why T IME Ch ose Ben Bern anke.")
So her e he i s i nsi d e hi s marble大理石的for tress堡垒, a technocrat 技术统治者i n an i nk-stained墨汁玷污的shirt and an
（off-the-r ack）现成的sui t, explai ning what he's done, where w e are and what might happen next.
He k now s that the economy i s awful可怕的庄严的, that 10% unemploy ment i s much too hi gh, that W all Street bank er s are greed y贪婪的i ngr ates忘恩负义的人, that Mai n Street still hurts. Bank s are hand ing out sw eet bonuses奖金agai n but still ar en't doing much lend ing. Technically, the recessi on衰退凹处i s ov er, but gr owth has been anemic 患贫血症的and heavily r eliant依赖的on
gov ernment pr ograms like（Cash for Clunker s）旧车换现金, not to menti on cheap Fed money. "I under stand why people ar e frustr ated 挫折阻扰失意. I'm frustrated too," Ber nanke say s. "I'm not one of those people w ho l ook at thi s as some kind of vi d eo game. I come fr om Mai n Street, from a small town that's r eally depressed. Thi s i s all very real to me."
But Bernank e also know s the economy w oul d be much, much w or se if the Fed had not taken such extreme measures to stop the panic. There's a v ast d ifference between 10% and 25% unempl oyment, betw een anemic患贫血症的and（negative gr owth）负增长的. He wi shes Americans under stood that he helped sav e the irresponsibl e不负责任的gi ants of Wall Street only to pr otect or d i nary folk s人们on Mai n Street. He k now s better than any one how financi al cri ses spiral盘旋i nto gl obal d i saster s, how the grass gets cr ushed 压碎w hen elephants fall. "W e came very, very cl ose to a depressi on ... The mark ets wer e in anaphylactic过敏性的shock打击震动," he tol d TIME during one of three extended interview s. "I'm not happy with where w e are, but i t's a l ot better than where w e coul d be." (See pictures of Ben Bernan ke's off ice.)
Ber nank e also has thoughts about the economy's fu t ure — and w e'll get to them soon. Fir st, though, we shoul d expl ain why his face i s on the cov er of this i ssue. The overri d ing高于一切的最重要的story of 2009 w as the economy— the l ousiness 不清洁的卑鄙的of it,
and the fact that i t wasn't far l ousi er污秽的讨厌的满是虱子的. It was a y ear of escal ating逐步上升的l ay offs解雇裁员, bankruptcies 破产and forecl osures取消抵押品赎回权, the "new frugality俭省节俭" and the "new nor mal." It w as al so a year of green shoots, a rebounding 篮板球弹回Dow and a fr agile 脆的易碎的sense that the w or st i s over. Even the big political stories of 2009 — the struggles of the Democr ats; the tea-party tak eover of the Republicans; the sti mulus刺激激励刺激物; the deficit赤字不足额; G M and Chry sler; the backlash 反斜线ov er bailouts 紧急救助and bonuses奖金; the furious狂怒的激烈的debates over health care, energy and financial regul ati on; the constant drumbeat鼓声打鼓声of jobs, jobs, jobs — wer e, at heart, stories about the economy. And it's Ber nanke's economy.
In 2009, Bernank e hurled 用力投掷unprecedented 空前的无前例的amounts of money i nto the banking sy stem in unprecedented
w ays, while starti ng to l ay the gr oundw ork for the Fed's ev entual最后的结果的r eturn to nor mality常态适当浓度. He hel ped over see the fi nanci al stress tests that finally cal med the markets, w hile launching a gr ound br eaki ng public r elati ons campai gn to demy stify使非神秘化阐明启发the Fed. N ow that Obama has deci ded to keep hi m in hi s job, he has become a （lightning r od）避雷针i n an intense强烈的紧张的非常的nati onal debate ov er the Fed as it approaches i ts second century.
But the mai n reason Ben Shal om Ber nanke i s TIME's Per son of the Year for 2009 i s that he i s the most i mportant player gui d ing the
w orl d's most i mportant economy. Hi s creative leader ship helped ensure that 2009 was a peri od of weak r ecovery rather than
catastr ophic 灾难的悲剧的depr essi on不景气, and he still wiel ds挥舞使用行使unrival ed 无敌的至高无上的pow er over our money, our jobs, our savings and our nati onal future. The deci si ons决断决策he has made, and those he has yet to mak e, will shape the path of our prosperity繁荣成功, the directi on of our politics and our r elati onship to the w orl d.。